The United States athletes soared as the USA dominated the IAAF World Athlethics Championships 2017 in Britain while the Caribbean athletes returned to earth after great past Championships and Olympics showings.

Usain Bolt

The track athlete of the past 10 years, Usain Bolt, announced he would retire, that this was his last World Championships and, last year, his last Olympics game.

He entered only the 100M and 4x100M events, finishing a close 3rd in the 100M and pulling up from injury in the 4x100m relay, a disappointing way for him to end a great career… but we should be happy we had a Usain Bolt, regardless of this end to his career.

The Future

The future may seem grim to many but, having watched the ISSA Boys and Girls Championships the past few years, I expect to see some good talent come out of the Caribbean in the next 2 – 3 years.

Big ups to our athletes and congratulations to all who competed, whether they won medals or not. And, by the way, Jamaicans and Caribbean people, stop making up stories about the athletes, some really bad stories. Let’s just accept that they weren’t up to par this time around and hope the ones who remain and the ones who will step up to the table in the future will learn from these Championships.

More terrible news from the West Indies as Sunil Narine, the tricky spinner who can bowl so many types of deliveries, was banned by the International Cricket Council (ICC).

Narine is ranked #1 in ODI and T20I bowling and has been difficult to hit. This comes as more devastating to a West Indian team searching for some redemption, with not much going right the past few years.

You may remember that Samuels was reported again just a few weeks ago in October. Narine was reported in the Champions League T20 competition but, this time, it’s the ICC. This is awful news. Only time will tell when he will be allowed to come back. You may remember Shane Shillingford was doing well for the West Indies before being reported. His international cricket came to an end and he hasn’t been the same since.

Do the big 3 (India, England, Australia) all have some special action-correcting machine that prevents their spinners from undergoing this level of “action reporting”? I do not recall the full list of spinners whose actions were reported to the ICC but, if you check Wikipedia: International players whose actions have been reported to ICC, you see that the past 10 years, none of them are from those big three countries. Conspiracy theory?

Though losing the popular vote by an estimated 100,000 votes, the PNM was able to capture 23 of the 41 constituencies (“seats”) and re-take hold of the twin-island nation after losing in 2010, then lead by many-term Prime Minister Patrick Manning.

Incidentally (not sure if it’s ironic), Keith Rowley is a trained geologist as was the prior PNM party leader, Patrick Manning.

In the end, Kenya reigned supreme ahead of Jamaica and the United States of America in the medal tally.

The Jamaican women’s team 4x400M team received Jamaica’s only medal, the gold, on the final day of competition. The two-team race saw Jamaica’s lead by lead off Christine Day being lengthened signifcantly by Sherica Jackson. However, Stephanie Ann McPherson was chased down by 400M champion of the USA, Allyson Felix, to give the US the lead on the 4th leg. However, the great Novlene Williams-Mills, ran past Francena McCrory to take the victory for Jamaica. USA got the silver and Great Britain was 3rd.

In the Men’s 4×400 M, Trinidad & Tobago finished 2nd to the United States. Great Britain was also 3rd in this event edging Jamaica’s promising youngster Javon Francis (former Calabar High School standout) at the line. Francis actually went out quickly to take 1st place but couldn’t hold it down the stretch. Gutsy performance by the young man.